


Rowan, The Silver Shroud

by Bloody-Medic (khan_noonien_singh)



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: M/M, Main quest spoilers, Rowan is an ex-Courser, Spoilers, he thinks he's a comic character now, identity crisis, sole survivor is silver shroud, synthetic sole survivor, whose mind was wiped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 19:12:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7326892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khan_noonien_singh/pseuds/Bloody-Medic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or, the tale of how two film-noir robot detectives fall in love and solve mysteries</p>
<p>Warning. There will be spoilers.</p>
<p>Rowan is my SoSu, a resourceful idiotic guy who thinks he's the Silver Shroud. He's also a Synth, designation R0-4N. Much of his combat style is based on gun kata, from Equilibrium.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rowan, The Silver Shroud

The day the bombs fell, Rowan and his wife and son, Natalie and Shaun, were cryogenically frozen in Vault 111, one of the most technologically advanced vaults produced by Vault-Tec. He was unfrozen years later, to watch his wife get murdered and his son kidnapped, before being sealed away again in his icy tomb, presumably until the vault failed.

When the vault's cryogenic systems finally failed, the first thing Rowan did was check to see if his wife was still alive. She wasn't, of course. Bullet straight to the forehead... killed instantly. Rowan blinked at the realization, then wondered how exactly he fucking knew that. He shook his head and frowned, slipping the ring off of Natalie's finger before swearing to her that he would find Shaun, and kill the bastard who'd taken their boy.

The man turned to leave the room, frowning and hitting the switch to close the cryo-pod Natalie was in and sealing away the last ties to his past.

 

Stumbling out of the vault, Rowan winced at the harsh sunlight. But once his eyes adjusted, he had to let out a shocked gasp at the sight of the destroyed world around him. "So this... This is what the world's come to..." he mumbled, looking down the hill at Sanctuary Hills. His home, destroyed by the bomb... He wondered how the rest of the world had fared, if it was all as bad as this.

If anyone had told him he would be cryogenically frozen, and then thrown into a world scorched by atomic fire, he would've laughed and called them an idiot. But now... He shook his head and headed towards the booth by the vault entrance, searching for supplies. A few boxes of bullets, some stimpaks, and some radaway were all he found, but it was enough for the trip downhill to the place he once called home.

"As I live and breathe, Master Rowan, is that you?" exclaimed a familiar voice as he stumbled into the area that was his neighborhood. Of course... that bucket of bolts just had to survive the bomb…

“It’s good to see you too, Codsworth.” The sarcasm practically oozed from the statement. The floating tin can, like always, failed to detect it in Rowan’s voice. I guess even all the bombs couldn’t fix his derision modulator.

The Mr. Handy robot just bobbed happily, as though it was glad to see its owner for the first time in over 200 years. “Yes, sir! How have you been, sir? I was worried sick of your absence.”

Rowan let out an exaggerated sigh, frowning at the Handy. “Well, I was frozen for who knows how long, Natalie was killed, and Shaun was kidnapped… so I’m pissed.”

Codsworth jumps up slightly and spins around as if to indicate its surprise. “Egads! Was that what all the commotion was outside? I had thought they were just some junk raiders again trying to steal one of my arms!” To emphasize, he swings one of his metal arms up and down.

“Raiders? Codsworth, what are you talking about?” Rowan was confused, the people now sounded insane. Raiders, really, that was something out of one of those sci-fi novels Natalie used to read.

“Good heavens, sir! Ever since the dust settled, I had been diligently taking care of your homely assets for you.” Codsworth started to move, showing what little caretaking he had done to the dilapidated place. “Things might still need a bit of work here and there, but think of what it would have been like without me around! From time to time we get unwanted visits from barbaric mongrels thinking they could have an easy time ransacking the place. Oh how wrong they were, yes indeed... As I could not stand for such trespassing to my master’s abode, I took it upon myself to teach those dirty dogs a lesson.” The flying bucket for brains seemingly puffs up after the statement. “They will think twice to attack here again.”

“Right… Thanks, I guess…” he mutters, looking around the destroyed town. ‘Here and there’... more like ‘needs total rebuilding’. “That’s a power armor station, isn’t it? I thought those were only used by the military, what’s it doing in that garage?” Rowan said, walking toward the machinery.

“Ahh, I see you spotted one of my prized salvages during one of my out of town excursions. I was to use it for stretching some of my creative circuits with what would I like to call ‘art d'ordure’. You can see some of my other creations over here.” Codsworth floats over to what looks like standing piles of junk plasma welded together with no semblance of anything whatsoever. “I was thinking of doing something a little different with this one and adding some plants I rounded up around the house.”

“Codsworth, is there anyone sane left? People who aren’t trying to destroy what’s left of the world?” Rowan asked, not really caring about the piles of junk. He just wanted to meet someone who wasn’t a robot or an idiot(like Codsworth).

“Besides you and me, Master Rowan, there has not been a single sane person to note in the region.” Codsworth turned to look at the piles of junk then back to Rowan. “Are you sure you do not want to see more? I have plenty more to show you if you are interested.”

“This looks like a good place to set up a shelter…” Rowan muttered, ignoring the bucket of bolts. He looked around for anything to use to start constructing sort-of walls, noting that the next-door house had fallen completely into disrepair. So he dragged over some old metal panels and started to build, hoping it wouldn’t take too long to get a decent shelter set up. It did look like a storm was coming in, after all.

“Master Rowan! Are you sparing your time to help out your old faithful metal companion with his work!? I’m astounded! Speechless even! Why, I am proud to have such a loving master to work under such as yourself!”

Rowan rolled his eyes and kept working, hoping to get the shelter set up before the storm. The nor'easters were bad enough before the whole nuclear war, he didn’t want to know what they’d be like now.

Codsworth, being the worthless moving piece of metal that his is, continued to pester Rowan as he worked. Eventually Codsworth concedes and glides off to do his own thing, watering the plants, dusting the old house furnishings, and making sure that all the rusted metal panels of the now defunct car is still shining through the coat of heavy oxidation. Rowan shook his head and muttered, "My name is Mister Handy, tidier of things. Look upon this room I said I cleaned, and despair..." Despite his shortcomings, you’ve got to hand it to him for being such a loyal hard worker even after all these years. Rowan’s admiration for the robot only lasted momentarily. Still, he's got to make a note on what to do with that idiot later…


End file.
